Microsoft abandons its Internet activity in the United States

Microsoft abandons its Internet activity in the United States

Microsoft logoMicrosoft has just announced that it will discontinue its low-speed ISP business in the United States. After Europe, Microsoft therefore stops a service which still had 8.7 million subscribers in 2003 and totaled only 1.5 million users in March 2007.

With a turnover in free fall of 738 million dollars over the last four years, the “Access” division had become a real burden for the Redmond company. After having ceased its ISP activity at the end of the 90s in Europe, Microsoft has come to the conclusion that Internet access is a profession intended only for telecommunications operators.

” Due to the underlying trend represented by the migration of users from broadband Internet access to broadband, we expect our broadband subscriber base to continue to decline as we are withdrawing from this activity “The company said in a document filed with the US stock exchange authorities, the SEC.

The analysis : A page turns for Microsoft. By choosing to focus mainly on its Windows Live services (Messenger, Spaces or Search), the Redmond company has chosen to withdraw Internet access from its economic model, an activity that literally sealed its accounts every year.